A BLUEPRINT to shape the future of the North York Moors National Park makes way for 550 new homes and more jobs while preserving and enhancing the communities and landscape.

Now people will be asked to have their say on the park authority’s preferred priorities and policies for the next 15 years in a series of meetings being held in communities across the National Park.

Faced with a five per cent drop in the population to 23,300 the park is battling to balance potential development to ensure it is a thriving working community with the restraint and protection needed to ensure the park is preserved.

One of the major policies is to encourage small scale housing, around 29 a year, with limits on second homes and holiday homes and the emphasis on local connection conditions.

Much of the new housing would be centred on Helmsley, with some developments in the 15 largest villages.

The park's deputy chair, Malcolm Bowes,said: “The park is not a museum. Its landscape has evolved over millennia and been influenced by10,000 years of human habitation. Many generations have lived and worked here and feel a close connection. Future generations will continue to add to this legacy and form distinctive communities that need homes, businesses and services to thrive.

“The plan seeks to balance the overriding need to conserve and enhance the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage of the National Park, with the need for new homes, jobs and services. It is the role of this plan to manage these often competing aims by putting in place a set of policies to guide careful decision making on where new development will be located and how it will look and function.

“Our goal is to leave to future generations a National Park that is even more beautiful, healthy and culturally rich than the one we inherited.”

Other policies include saying no to new static caravan sites and conversion of existing service, retail or educational buildings being strictly controlled with a presumption against. The plan makes the overriding priority conserving and enhancing the beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage of the park which gets eight million visitors a year.

That will be balanced alongside the need for new homes, jobs and services. New health, sport, education and other community facilities will be permitted wherever feasible.

The plan can be seen at northyorkmoors.org.uk